A different story this time around

Published 7:00 pm, Wednesday, May 28, 2008

COAHOMA - Heather Newton was a freshman on the 2007 Coahoma softball team, and she didn't think the state tournament was that big of a deal.

She won't make that mistake this time around.

The Bulldogettes pitcher leads Coahoma into its fourth straight Class 2A state softball tournament and the 10th trip overall in school history. Coahoma (32-9) faces S&S Consolidated (30-4) in the first semifinal game at 2 p.m. today at McCombs Field in Austin. East Bernard (28-4-1) plays Big Sandy Harmony (36-9) in the other semifinal at 4:30 p.m.

And when Newton steps into the circle this afternoon, she's prepared to take the contest every bit as seriously as she should this time around.

"This year, I know what to expect," said Newton, now a sophomore. "Last year I was just a freshman, and I went in thinking maybe it was just a little thing and not all that big a deal. But it was huge, and there were millions of people. It wasn't really scary, but it was just, 'Wow.'"

Newton may have been exaggerating about the attendance figures, but the entire team played like it was a shell-shocked. Eventual state champion Troy run-ruled Coahoma, knocking the Bulldogettes off 11-1 in six innings.

All this season, the talk around the team has been about doing more than just making a six-hour bus trip to the state's capital.

"If you set your goal just to go, when you're there, what else have you got?" Coahoma coach Tracy Tadlock said. "The emphasis is on winning it. If you don't win it, you're just like 120 other teams in the state, or how many ever 2A teams there are. There's only one winner and nobody remembers second place. Putting pressure on them to win it, I don't think that hurts a team that has what it takes to win it."

A lot of what it takes to be successful at the state level is a dominating pitcher, and Coahoma has that in Newton. She's handcuffed opponents in the playoffs, limiting them to seven runs in six playoff games thus far. Hawley scored three runs in the second game of the 2A regional final series, but Tadlock said that was the 10th time the Lady Cats had seen Newton in the past two seasons.

"Any good team that sees a pitcher 10 times, they're going to get some hits," Tadlock said. "I don't think Heather threw as well as she could, but she threw well enough for us to win. She's not going to be a problem. She needs to work hard, hit her spots and focus for seven innings and she'll be all right."

Another factor working in Newton's favor is that none of the teams at state are familiar with her. Unlike Hawley, a district opponent for Coahoma in 5-2A, S&S Consolidated hasn't played Coahoma since Newton arrived at the school.

"It's a big advantage for me," Newton said. "I can throw all my stuff, and they won't know what's coming. Hawley's players know all my pitchers and even if I mixed it up, they still knew what was coming."

Newton throws hard enough that catcher Janice Gonzales has to use a palm guard to protect her catching hand, and she also mixes up her spots and speeds well enough to keep opposing batters off balance.

Perhaps her biggest upside, though, is her age. She still has two more years to lead Coahoma to a state championship.

She wants to make sure she gets her first one this year, though.

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"All of our seniors had sisters on the '98 team (which won the state championship)," she said. "We've talked all season about not just going down there, but we're going to win it. Sure, all those teams are killing everybody. But if you think about it, we've been killing everybody, too. We feel like we're better than all the teams that are going to be at state, so we just have to step it up and play up to our level."